Seroprevalence of Hepatitis B infection at a tertiary care hospital in North Karnataka over a period of 10 years

Background: The Hepatitis B virus is a hepatotropic virus, known to cause Hepatitis B infection. Although a cost-effective vaccine is available , it still poses a significant public health problem in the world. The 10% of hepatitis B infection is shared by India alone. Every year around 0.1 million deaths occur due to hepatitis B and its related illness in the country. Methods: This was a prospective cross-sectional study conducted at a tertiary care hospital, from 2010 to 2019. For this routine screening of HBV, Hepatitis B Surface Antigen (HBsAg) was used as a marker of infection. All the serum samples were divided into 0.5 milliliter (ml) aliquots and stored at -20 c. All the sera were tested for the presence of Hepatitis B surface antigens (SD Bioline manufactured by Alere Medical Pvt ltd, Gurgaon, Haryana, India) Positive and negative controls were used. Results: A total of 2, 41,845 serum samples were processed for HBsAg detection by latex agglutination over a period of ten years. Of the 2, 41,845 samples tested 5,773 were found positive for HBsAg. Thus, prevalence of hepatitis B infection in our hospital was found to be 2.38%. Conclusion: Thus, this study concludes that HBV infection is still a public health problem which should be among the prioritized health problem in our country.